Vorlesungsverzeichnis

Foundations of Organizational Behavior (Vorlesung)

Inhalt: **UPDATE 25.03.20** This lecture will be held virtually. Apart from the first (Introduction) and last (exam preparation) appointments, all other lectures will be uploaded as video presentations weekly. The textbook will be provided as a scan. For the online appointments please download and install the software Zoom. Use your Leuphana email to register. A Moodle course with interactive content will be set up for this class. Please check regularly for updates. Today, we live in a »society of organizations« (Perrow, 1991). Organizations are all around us: Most of us are born in hospitals, learn in schools and universities, work in or for formal organizations, such as business firms, public organizations or NGOs, and even spend much of our leisure time in organizations such as cinemas, sport clubs, or theatres. Moreover, big organizations such as multinational corporations are increasingly recognized as powerful actors who are responsible for various societal challenges, including climate change, inequality, or financial in-/stability. But different forms of organization are also the only tools we have to address those challenges. Indeed, organization and organizing are a core managerial task, one that requires students of business to understand not only the behavior of individuals and groups in organizational settings but also of organizations as social systems in their own right. This module will introduce students to classic and contemporary theories of organization, thereby taking a multi-paradigmatic and problem-driven approach. We will focus on five generic problems of organization: (i) the design of organizational structures and processes, (ii) the integration of individual and organization, (iii) the handling of organization-environment relations, (iv) dealing with emergent organizational processes, such as those related to power, politics, and culture, and (v) coping with organizational change. Together, we will reflect upon the historical development of different theoretical perspectives, their anthropological assumptions, their insights and blind spots, as well as their practical application to contemporary problems of organization in the business world and beyond. Students will be given the opportunity to deepen their specific thematic interests by choosing one seminar that expands their knowledge on a specific sub-area of organizational behavior.

Big Data in Organisationen (Seminar #1) (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Marie-Lena Frech

Inhalt: Kreditkartenbuchungen, Reisedaten im Navigationssystem, Käufe auf Amazon, Facebook-Einträge, WhatsApp- und Twitter-Nachrichten – wir alle hinterlassen tagtäglich unzählige digitale Fußabdrücke. Die Auswertung dieser riesigen Datenmengen – Big Data – ermöglicht die Erstellung individueller psychologischer Profile, die unter anderem Informationen über Persönlichkeit, kognitive Fähigkeiten, oder persönliche Werte einer Person enthalten. Diese Profile können von Unternehmen genutzt werden, um beispielsweise die Treffsicherheit der Kandidatenauswahl im Rekrutierungsprozess zu erhöhen oder um Informationen über Konsumenten zu erhalten. Big Data verändert die Wirtschaft, Kultur, Gesellschaft und das Leben des Einzelnen. Die Seminarinhalte befassen sich mit aktuellen Trends in der Verhaltensforschung im Zusammenhang mit Big Data sowie mit den Chancen und Risiken dieser Entwicklung.

Culture and Identity in Organizations (seminar #2) (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Boukje Cnossen

Inhalt: Set-up: A general introduction to the course will be given via Zoom. This lecture will also be recorded for those students who are not able to attend the live Zoom lecture. Students will then start to work in pairs on a pre-defined topic and will produce a video-recorded presentation, and a reference list. They will upload their presentation for everyone to watch. Students will be assigned presentations to give feedback on. This peer-review element is an integral part of the course. Content: Shared cultural ideas, meanings, beliefs, and concepts of “who we are” influence how people in an organization think, feel, and act. Organizations are also arenas where people perform and negotiate various work and non-work identities. Yet, organizations rarely simply passively observe such processes, but also actively seek to control and manage socialization and identification. This seminar will provide an introduction to organizational culture and identity, covering both theoretical foundations and their practical application to issues such as leading employees, managing innovation, and designing sustainable organizations. Building on an overview of the main approaches to organizational culture and identity, the seminar will examine a number of thematic issues such as socialization, identification, critical approaches to culture, identity and control, the relationship of work and non-work identities, and occupational identities. The seminar is based on student assignments (group work) designed to enhance students’ ability to think analytically and to develop a comprehensive understanding of the cultural dynamics of organizations.

Arbeit 4.0 = schöne neue Arbeitswelt? (Standards Guter Arbeit) (seminar #3) (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Thorsten Jochims

Termin:
wöchentlich | Montag | 14:15 - 17:45 | 11.05.2020 - 22.06.2020 | C 40.165 Seminarraum

Inhalt: Die Arbeitswelt befindet sich aktuell in einem komplexen Wandel. Der Ausgang des Prozesses ist noch ungewiss. Insbesondere das Thema Arbeitszufriedenheit erfreut sich wieder eines reichhaltigen Interesses. Das Entstehen von Arbeitszufriedenheit als eines zentralen Untersuchungsgegenstands der Forschung hat dazu geführt, dass sich die Schatztruhe an möglichen Einflussfaktoren auf die Arbeitszufriedenheit reichhaltig angefüllt hat. Nahezu alles, was Arbeitnehmerinnen und Arbeitnehmern irgendwie Nutzen stiften kann, zeigt in entsprechenden Untersuchungen auch eine Wirkkraft auf die Arbeitszufriedenheit. Zufriedenheit zeigt sich jedoch auch als lahmer Indikator für die Beurteilung der Arbeitssituation, der zahlreichen – auch ideologisch motivierten –Deutungen zugänglich ist. Im Seminar werden unterschiedliche Determinanten und Zielgrößen der Arbeitszufriedenheit näher betrachtet und analysiert.

Führung im digitalen Zeitalter (Seminar 4#) (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Sevda Helpap

Inhalt: Die Digitalisierung setzt für viele Unternehmen einen grundlegenden kulturellen Wandel voraus: agiler, innovativer, partizipativer! Neue Ansätze und Methoden der Zusammenarbeit, Kommunikation und Führung werden hierzu notwendig. Die Rolle und das Verständnis von Führung ändern sich in einer zunehmend vernetzten Arbeitswelt vom „Vorgesetzten“ zum „Coach“. In diesem Seminar wollen wir uns näher mit neuen Führungsansätzen für die digitale Transformation auseinandersetzen und dabei verstehen, was ein digital Leader ausmacht, wie dieser die Unternehmenskultur prägt und welche neuen und agilen Methoden ein Must-Have sind. Das Seminar ist interaktiv aufgebaut. Um dieses auch remote umsetzen zu können, werden die Termine über Zoom stattfinden, wo wir uns für Präsentationen, Diskussionen und Gruppenarbeiten treffen werden. Dabei wird ein Teil des Zeitfensters (ca. 2/3) für die digitalen Treffen verwendet und ein anderer Teil (ca. 1/3) für Gruppenübungen.

Organizing in Times of Crisis: The Case of COVID (seminar #5) (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Hannah Trittin-Ulbrich

Inhalt: The worldwide spread of the Covid19 virus poses a grand social challenge. Seriously threatening the health of the world’s population and accompanied by huge social and economic disruption, it is one of the largest immediate crises for Western societies since World War II and a humanitarian disaster for humankind around the world. Drawing on classic and contemporary organization theory, this course aims to illuminate many pressing questions surrounding the pandemic, such as how supply chains can be organized to ensure adequate supplies of health material, the strengths and difficulties of open science approaches to the development of a vaccine or capabilities of different forms of organization and coordination to quickly and adequately respond in times of crisis. he course comprises 12 modules, each dealing with a particular aspect of the Covid19 crisis in relation to different theories of organization and organizing. It is a collaborative effort of organizational scholars from different Austrian and German universities that have expertise in researching grand challenges, different forms of organizing and crisis management. Given the current need for distance learning, the whole course can be completed online and asynchronously. Each module comprises a short recorded lecture and a set of core and background readings in addition to links to contemporary newspaper articles. All course materials can be found here: https://timesofcrisis.org/

Organizations and Responsible Behaviour (seminar #6) (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Ursula Weisenfeld

Inhalt: Seminar “Organizations & Responsible Behaviour” All over the world humankind is faced with an extraordinary challenge: how to deal with the current pandemic. Social distancing is a key measure adopted in countries to different degrees, to slow down the spread of Covid19 in order to flatten peaks of hospitalization and to allow more time to learn about treatment. The economy is playing a big role in discussions: How to meet extraordinary demand (equipment for health workers, hospital beds, medication, food), how to address psychological consequences of regulatory measures (isolation, job loss, worries leading to panic attacks), how to survive as a business that is affected by populations’ confinements (e.g., closures of restaurants and hotels, reduced use of means of transport) etc. Organizations are faced with enormous problems to survive. Others scramble to provide equipment to fight the virus. We take the current crisis as our core application topic. This seminar will provide different perspectives on organizational behaviour related to responsibility. We will explore (a) what responsibility means from different theoretical lenses (b) investigate respective organizational behaviour and management practices and (c) discuss how to organize for responsibility. This seminar will take place entirely online, using synchronous and asynchronous activities. We will all meet at specific times online to share expectations and have discussions, and we will work in an asynchronous manner, working in a self-paced manner to prepare sessions, working through audio ppt, reading literature, and answering questions.

Emerging Technologies and Organizing (seminar #7) (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Blagoy Blagoev

Inhalt: **UPDATE 25.03.20** This seminar will be held virtually. All seminar sessions will be held online with the software Zoom. Please download and install the software Zoom and use your Leuphana email to register. The presentations will be held virtually with Zoom. A Moodle course with interactive content will be set up for this class. Please check regularly for updates. In the so-called »digital age«, the relationship between organization and technology needs to be reconsidered. In a very explicit sense, technologies—in particular digital ones—have become fully intertwined with the social fabric of organizing: today, organization without technology seems impossible. The question whether technology determines organizational behavior or organizations shape technology use is more pertinent than ever. New and emerging technologies—such as AI, robots, or deep learning—are often seen as paradigm-shifting inventions comparable in their potential impact to the invention of the steam engine or electricity. Pessimists predict that such technologies might endanger a number of jobs and ultimately lead to a dystopic future of unemployment, surveillance, and domination of technology over human beings. Optimists see new and emerging technologies as vehicles of human liberation, prosperity, and domination of man over nature. This seminar will introduce students to research on organization and technology, providing both insights into foundational theoretical perspectives and into current debates as well as emerging ideas. It aims at enabling students to engage with and resolve practical and conceptual challenges related to organization and technology in a critical-reflective way. Rather than focusing only on how technologies can be used to advance firms' economic goals and performance, the seminar will take a broader perspective and invite students to consider the organizational, ecological, and socio-political implications of new and emerging technologies.

Team Leadership (Seminar #8) (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Laura Venz

Inhalt: In modern organizations teams are the prevalent form of organizing work making it critical to understand the factors that determine team effectiveness. In this regard, this seminar will provide an introduction to organizational team work with a particular focus on team leadership, covering theoretical foundations and empirical examinations as well as their practical application to organizational life. On the basis of current empirical publications on leadership and team work, the seminar will examine a number of topics such as the effectiveness of different leadership styles and behaviors in relation to team performance and team well-being. Further, factors such as team composition and characteristics of successful teams, coordination and communication in teams, and special forms of teams, such as virtual teams, are discussed. Based on the research findings presented, possibilities for the development of leaders and teams are discussed. *** In light of the current changes and challenges many teams and leaders face in their everyday work, we will particularly focus on topics such as digital leadership, virtual team work and leading teams in a crisis *** The seminar is based on student assignments (presentations) designed to enhance students’ ability to think analytically and to develop a comprehensive understanding of team leadership in organisations. *** You are more than welcome to make suggestions on topics you want to discuss/present within this seminar with a special focus on current challenges for team leadership in light of the Corona virus crisis. ***

Vernetztes Entscheiden und Problemlösen in Organisationen (Seminar #9) (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Daniel Verch

Inhalt: Die Veranstaltung setzt sich mit Fragen des Entscheidens und Problemlösens in Organisationen auseinander. Nach einer Einführung in bewährte Modelle sowie zum Stand der Forschung werden einige Aspekte des Entscheidungs- und Problemlöseverhaltens in Organisationen in Form von Referaten und Case Studies näher beleuchtet. Hierzu gehören auf individueller Ebene beispielsweise die Rollen von Macht, Kreativität und Expertise beim Problemlösen. Auf organisationaler Ebene werden unter anderem die Modellierung von Entscheidungsprozessen und der Einsatz von Informationstechnologie zur Unterstützung der organisationalen Entscheidungsfindung behandelt.